Fibre Art - Poppies and Dahlia Brooches

Total melt down at the weekend. Once, I'd finished my shrug I fancied knitting something easier and quicker, and decided to use my beautiful recycled sari yarn to make myself a knitted knitting bag. I wanted something to put in my current project to keep it save whilst I wasn't working on it. So I started my knitting bag and ran out of wool! Not fair. So I ordered the wool on Saturday morning, but it'll be a couple of days at least before it arrives.

Next, I bought some wool (and as I thought the right needles) in town on Saturday to make the beautiful wrist warmers for which I'd specifically bought a pattern on Etsy. You can see the pattern here: Piquant Purls. However, my needles were too long to knit in the round. Sigh. So no wrist warmers until the new needles arrive... :-( Sniff. Luckily the sun is out and about so I don't desperately need them just yet.

Totally heart broken I decided to do something totally different and set to do some felting. Below is the result of my hard work. :-)




Blue Poppy Brooch

This one has been needle felted in three layers. Each layer had a border added in the same colour to make it look more like a petal. The centre has tiny Japanese charcoal matte cube beads to add detail.



The design has a simple elegance that really appeals to me. Sorry guys, this one's mine! Teal is my favourite colour. However, I will be making more of them in different colours. Or, if your heart really is set on a teal one, drop me a line. The brooch is 6cm x 5cm (2 1/4" x 2").





Damson and Mauve Dahlia Brooch

This brooch is a mix of wet and needle felting. The loops are in fact wet felted 'ropes' that have been turned into loops on a needle felted circle and needle felted securely into place. The brooch has a diameter of roughly 6.5cm (2.5").



The centre consists of two vintage beads (both plastic to keep the brooch light) in matching colours. I am really pleased with how this design idea turned out. The little loops look very organic and give the brooch a lot of texture. Like in the Teal Poppy design I've used three different shades of Merino wool.




Red Poppy Brooch

This was actually meant to turn out like the Teal Poppy, however for this design I wet felted each of the layers and when they were dry enough to handle I found they didn't work the way I'd intended them to. So I arranged them differently and I really like the boldness of the design.



The three petals were wet felted in three different shades of red, from very dark red to a coral red and then wet felted together with detail added in different shades of red. I must have used at least 5 different shades of red. The centre has been created from red/black lined Japanese seed beads. The brooch is 10cm x 8cm (4"x3").


All brooches (apart from the Teal Poppy brooch) will be available from my Etsy shop soon (or if you cannot wait, drop me a line). You can also order all brooch designs in custom colours. I currently have various shades of red, pink, purple, blue, green, brown and white, grey, and black. Prices vary depending on the design/size/etc but start from about £10.